Okatch officiates at Africa NBA tourney
Calistus Kolantsho | Friday May 21, 2021 18:05
The BAL is an NBA competition that has been introduced in Africa. It features 12 clubs from across the continent.
Luck smiled on Okatch as she was selected to join the referees’ team in Kigali for the BAL, which is a men’s competition.
“The organisers saw my videos from past competitions, so I guess that convinced them that I am one of the best. Only three women were selected to be officials,” Okatch revealed. She said the competition was top notch and time was taken to invest in referees. Okatch added that since last year, training was conducted every week via the Zoom platform.
“I had missed sport a lot. One thing I realised was that the organisers were strict on COVID-19 protocol adherence,” she said.
“We stayed in the bubble and precaution was taken to ensure that we only have contact with those in the bubble.
I think even in Botswana, this setup could work for our sport.” Meanwhile, the Botswana Basketball Association (BBA) has been selected to take part in the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Her World, Her Rules programme.
BBA women’s commission chairperson, Boitumelo Bante told Mmegi Sport the initiative is geared towards supporting basketball federations across the world to unearth new talent hence the involvement of girls in the sport globally. “The project is pursuing the girl-child who has never played basketball at all, which is a plus for us as BBA because it is in line with our current long term development plans intended to motivate local clubs to have their own development structures,” Bante said.
She said the initiative would complement Re Ba Bona Ha programme. Bante added they were currently in the planning phase of the initiative.
When asked on how they would be able to roll out the campaign during the suspension of sport, Bante said there are some activities in the project that do not require any contact. “Such activities include life skills impartation, skills show which is done at the individual level and talk shows.
We could focus on that for now while we are waiting for the COVID-19 protocols to ease a bit.” Bante said the plan was to implement the initiative in eight schools in Gaborone and two in Tlokweng.
BBA public relations officer, Abaleng Lesego said they have been awarded P29,000 (Swiss Franc 2,500). However, Lesego pointed out that at the moment they received only P11,000 (Swiss Franc 1,000) and the rest of the funds would be released after the conclusion of the campaign.
“The funds are for branding campaign material. This campaign would assist us to strengthen and shape up our vision for girls basketball,” she said.